##VIDEO ID:xYcJF3ym1-4## nice wait they be right oh yeah four and two now best BS I think that's all they have was four wins last year total Varity maybe not even they lead a false SPS right now yeah football team's doing all right SC 40 points against B Brook they're doing good and they they were right in it the second game it was right there and then you know just everybody got hurt some yeah some Tides turn they got hurt they lost their quarterback and you know maybe if back goes down he'd actually win right you never know that's oh that was BR just registered what you said he said that goes down you guys might have a chance bring that for Russia uh it makes my day I know when the Cowboys lose and the Eagles win I'm the complete officer see that was so frustrating last week because you had the 49ers and the Cowboys both and then the Eagles kind of crap and well they had the game one and it's like the rip yeah that that was brutal I I I really wish I turned that game off when I thought they had it wrapped up because that I couldn't fall asleep for an hour after he dropped the pass and m t almost got broken is that everybody yes evening Ron how are you good how are you good shall we uh we going yes all right good evening the meeting of the South Hunter and Regional Board of Education is called to order adequate notice as required by the open public meetings Act was provided on December the 6 2023 by posting the notice with the respective Clerks of the city of Lambertville bur of Stockon Township West Amwell and advertised in the Hun County Democrat and Trenton Times newspaper stand for the FL United States stands na indivisible liti call please Bachelor Martha Dennis here jete here Brian ke Kevin kovaleski here Michael Strauss Bon Tod Marino here gager here so I just want to acknowledge um and unfortunately the individual that I'm going to recognize had a last minute conflict an email report meeting could come but I do want to still recognize him and and a couple folks um I'm hoping some of you saw this week we posted on our social media and had sent out to parents that last Tuesday we launched our school store the Eagles Perch um and if you didn't get a chance I actually opened it up right outside in the hallway here I'd love for you to take a look at it during a Break um our board members as well so you know there's a lot of folks that took part in making that happen um one individual that I wanted to recognize specifically was Mark Curry from n Lumber so over the years n Lumber has donated a lot of different things throughout the district uh talking to our athletic director Mr Miller they they've donated athletic uniforms to our teams a scoreboard table for our basketball program and then for our school store they actually donate all the cabinets read you see in there and it's a lot of it so um I really wanted to recog Iz marking e Lumber just because they are a constant supporter of our district in a variety of different ways um and you know just go above and beyond quite honestly of supporting the district so and with that I also wanted to just recognize so part of that project was also funded by laf but we know that we hear things from them each and every month and obviously they played a role in it um Clemington Granite actually donated the marble countertops in in the uh school store so that's pretty po so I wanted to give them a shout out and then I wanted to give a shout out really to the four um staff members who are facilitating and came up with the idea created it and then actually brought it to life now with our kids working in the store and that was Dan ruelo Toby jeffes Jessica Louie and Becky Angela so they are supervising it um and we have a variety of different students that are working in the school school store and it really truly is an opportunity for some of our student population to develop some real life business skills because not only are they running the store each and every day um but they're also doing all the behind the scenes of the inventory how they're going to organize a store pricing all kinds of different things and then they're actually doing the sales and taking online orders in as well so you could obviously go up to the counter and buy things at the end of the school day eventually it will also be open during the lunch period for apparel they're going to have all kinds of school apparel that will be available but then there's also orders that come in online where they have to fill those orders and have them ready for when folks are going to come pick them up at the end of the day so um great life skills and we've really been able to partner you know a diverse group of our students to work in the school store so we're really really excited about that so I did want to acknowledge it we're you know if you get a chance like I said pop by you'll see all the different things that are available and it really they've done a phenomenal job and it's been kind of the heartbeat of the school over the last week since it opened up so uh this kudos everyone involved very good thank um next up report of the student representative to the board we do have one I I have a feeling he may not be here till s hold on that yes so then that comes as for the reason we're here at 6:30 and that's the interviews for candidates for the vacant Lambert board seat um we have two candidates Davis and I understand that You' discussed the procedure with we fli the point um we communicate in advance so Anna will be going first so we're going to invite Anna up to the podium and Aon I'll take you into the faculty lounge and then we'll kind of flip after really an good evening thank you for coming up and being with us this evening absolutely thank you so I'm going to start we're going to go around everybody's going to have a question for you um the questions are the same for both candidates um but I will start off with questioning and I'm just going to ask you if you can tell me a little bit about yourself and why you're interested in serving on this report absolutely um so I have a um few degrees which is nice I guess um but I currently work uh for Washington Crossing Historic Park I am their historical horticulturist um which allows me to incorporate um my anthropology background along with my herbal medicine background and create sort of a hybrid learning tool for the public to exchange and understand how colonists would have plant um the import of them especially during the time period of 1776 um but I also o have a private business of my own called a garden in time um where I sometimes focus on historical Horticulture um but also do some more standardized landscaping and Native Restorations um but for me my personal interest in coming to this um really comes from having my 10-year-old son who's in the district um just entered into fifth grade at our Middle School on location um and I just feel that um I've watched him and his uh fellow students go through a lot of changes over the last well really since they're very beginning in education um and I think I'd like to be a part of sort of defining how things can change or how they change as we know they're going to right the developing middle school and I'd like to be a part of that to just sort of feel that his community is represented as well um but I also have a deep love of Education um I do work pretty closely with children through my work at the park um so I've really just sort of grown to enjoy the environment that they already create thank you hi Ronnie um what you see is the primary work of the Board of Education I guess a lot of it would be a learning experience for me is to see how it actually goes um but based on you know sort of what my preconceived notion is um that it would be to sort of that the school would operate through um deal with sort of um uncertain changes for instance I know probably during the pandemic it was probably quite a lot of involvement on your part to sort of set the direction and see how your district and your community would then be able to progress um through that right in the healthiest way possible so um that's what I would like to see I guess experiences or skills have prepared you to serve as a board member um well I have not served on a board before but currently through my work at the park where I've been there for a decade um I work underneath a quite a large board of directors um so and quite closely with them as well uh I know that my role as a horticulturist sometimes seems like it might set me into one particular role but um I do a lot of grant writing fundraising and various other community sort of um events that we work very closely with the board um and I am also very close with the executive director and she constantly sort of feeds me into the understanding of how the board system really works um so yes while not having ever been on one I have worked intimately with one for the last 10 years thank you for coming out hello Kevin how are you how does a school board balance need to providing quality education with the need to respond to the local tax that you're burden I'm so sorry can you say that sure sorry it's kind of like almost like a two-part it's sort of a two-part question I thought how does the school board balance the need to provide a quality education with the need to respond to local taxpayers birth I think as a school board your first Interest really is the Children's Community um I do understand that there is a need to co cooperate and work with the taxpayer feel that their needs are represented as well um but I I do feel that the focus and the real intent is to make sure and ensure that the children come first so for lack of experience with uh having to deal with the situations that you've all dealt with with the taxpayer Community I think that you know what would feel right to me would be to sort of make sure that I wasn't really um losing sight of what I thought was really the focus of the school board I'm that what do you see as the major issue or issues St say a well don't know if I can really speak strongly to what I think that would be um I know that there are struggles probably again with the rearranging changing of schools locations and all of that um I would see that maybe as being the number one probably currently while I'm sure there are other long-term ones like Kevin had suggested balancing the taxpayers input um and making sure that their needs are addressed as well that they're feeling that something is coming out of their financial investment um and you know I think I think those things can be can be worked and balanced pretty well so challenges aren't particularly challenges if you can come up with a great way of addressing how to bring everybody in back me that was a great segue into this question how is you how would you as a board member work with a superintendent and other board members when there are different opinions on different topics uh very used to the group dynamic when it comes to coming to a solution or a direction um and I can be opinionated in very good fairness but I am also a quality listener um and I am 100% very willing and able to admit that perhaps my original idea was incorrect or wasn't in the best line and I will obviously then defer with what I think again is somebody else's wonderful opinion that um was different than mine I'm very open to sort of diverse understandings um again I work with a lot of different personality types in the field that I'm in um and you know and I even work with my private clients you know sometimes they have interests that are not in line with my interests but we make it work right as long as your goal is set to the same idea I think then it makes it easier for people to work together if appointed you'll serve in this position until 2026 the reorganization meeting at that time which typically takes place the first week of January would you consider or are you considering running in November 2025 no 2026 2025 yeah election to extend your turn um well so I think part of what appeal to me about being able to come into a empty term seat um was the ability to feel it out for my myself for a few months hopefully be a valuable contributor um but also wanting to evaluate my own personal life schedule making sure that I was available and that I could put time into this board um if I were chosen if I found that at the end of that term that those were struggles and balances that I couldn't find you know to be able to maintain um then I would be able to make a better well-informed decision at that time um but if I decided to move forward do have to say I'm not a particularly political person so I don't picture myself campaigning as they say but I would be absolutely willing to run again yeah back to me okay um so the board has several committees yes and we meet once a month that's how we operate basically a lot of discussion is done commit um so these include Personnel curriculum policy finance and facilities and school and communi um of the of that list of five committees um which do you think would be the benefit for you and why I think that I'm a very very flexible and adaptable person I would say that if you called those resources on those references on my resume you'll find that they say the same um I'm willing to fit into wherever the need is and I do think that I can provide a good contribution to any of those categories so I I don't really feel yeah that that one would be a better fit than another even though it may find out that one is but um yeah I think I could easily feel comfortable in any of those subcommittees that's the end of our prepared question I do usually end with one one final question and that is the traditional interview question what haven't we asked you that you want to tell us well I'm I mean I guess just to speak for myself a little further um I do really think that I'm a pretty solid Problem Solver and I think that that's probably what I could bring to this the best um not saying there's lots of problems that need to be solved but is kind of what you are doing right solving the issues as they come up um I have a creative and flexible mind and I like to solve these problems I like to look at things from New Perspectives um and you know sometimes it's a unique take but I think it it helps you know think outside the box Le well thank you very much thank you very Illuminating and interesting appreciate the opportunity to to hear from you talk to you thank you so I think Ely that way each of the L okay all right just want to make sure want to make sure hello good evening ER to see you again thank you for coming and coming out once again so obviously you're familiar with the uh with the process here um we're going to need to ask some questions um they are the same questions for both minutes and I I will begin so um the first question is uh tell us a little about yourself and why you're interested in serving sure um so why am I personally interested uh first and foremost I have a daughter in the school system she's in e8th grade and she's been in the school system since she was in kindergarten so obviously I have an interest in terms of her education and and um her school being a place of um Learning and Sports and socializing not in that order for her and um I've also been a public servant for the majority of my career as an attorney so I understand the need for public service um from serving on a board like this all the way to um dedicating your career as a public servant so I think that in terms of what Our obligation is as as generally as a citizen this is one of them um and that I care about the types of decisions that are in the board's hands um from policy decisions and recommendations and and um programming I think that uh the support and uh oversight that the board provides to the school district is really important um and I believe in public discourse and governance so I think that through my career as a an attorney for the state of New Jersey I really learned a lot about the torturous regulations but I also learned a lot about different boards that exist and the benefit of those boards to whether it be their agencies which is what I was doing or um be to the school district that those boards sit with certain about of of authority and information and um I believe in that public discourse although it's often difficult and I believe that um people I know understandably this isn't an elected position at this point because I'm filling a spot but that it'd be an elective position that you know people put forward a candidate that they're most interested in supporting their positions that they wanted the for to the school and maybe even a communication the other direction from the school to the community um and I also would say that why I would be an asset to the board Beyond those obvious personal of commitments and reasons why I'm interested relate to um my basic training as an attorney um I'm actually just trying to appeal to some of the board members frankly just kidding um I am a you know I was an attorney for the state of New Jersey for 25 years I retired in November and um my training both as a as a lawyer technically as well as being a trial attorney um really taught me some valuable lessons about um how to to deal with conflict in a way that's more practical and um involves not just asserting your position but hearing what the other positions are and understanding them to a point of of their true nature so I think that that deliberative kind of thought process that lawyers are inherently trained and required to do uh it creates an asset and would be an asset to the board in terms of how to look at certain problems and consider certain Solutions many would think that's the opposite and it may not be an asset um because lawyers don't always have the best reputation but considering I worked in you know child welfare I I really didn't have much um lawyering experience outside of state government so um I think also I my career specifically F focusing mostly on child welfare um gave me an opportunity to understand what school means to kids um not just seeing it for my own child but if you think about um an example would be the change in law for foster kids where there used to be a rule that said this was state law not the problem for you except you probably had to deal with the transportation um the state law used to say well wherever the foster parent lives the kid goes to that school district but the national movement really showed that maintaining kids in their own School District where they knew people they knew teachers they had established days would be good for those kids so even if they were were moved from their homes and placed sort of in a different Community they were able to maintain their other community of school despite being out of their own home and that shift for foster kids was pretty amazing so to understand what effect school can have on on particular kids whether it be kids who really struggle because they're coming from homes with you know with uh challenges and and are in maybe a placement type of circumstance that's a dramatic extent of it but I think the other end of that is to understand how much school can affect children generally in our community so it's not just the kids are doing great at sports but it's the kids who are struggling or the kids who are not as incorporated into the social milu of the the world so my perspective is it's an important role and so I am interested in serving in it but I answer um what do you see as the primary work of the of Education the primary work um I think it's pretty well established you know to provide policies and um policy recommendations to the school district and and sometimes create um and ask for those to be then carried out by the superintendent and the staff that that um he or she employs um I think the board also has several other roles in terms of the budget and um an obligation to really kind of evaluate the best interest of the community that they're surveying as well as the kids that they're serving in making policy recommendations budget um policy recommendations and decisions as well as um budgetary kind of you know what we've seen a lot of recently has been um you know the school the new school buildings and and and as I know the the new um preschool um influx of money from the state and how that kind of changes the the map so I think kind of generally I see it as a a director um and supervisor really of the superintendent but not um a day-to-day um hand in that work Aon what particular experiences or skills in prepar to serve for them I think I kind of covered that in the beginning so I don't want to repeat it or belabor it but I think that um generally my skills from a human perspective are pretty good uh when it comes to understanding different sides of a story or different positions of things um even if I if I see something in a particular way I think I'm pretty good at listening and hearing people and what they have to say um and so when you're the go between sometimes between the community and the school system and can serve in that role um I think that that is a positive attribute for for for board membership and as I said I think that my commitment uh to the community uh is another example of that both being a public service for the majority of my actually for my entire career as an attorney as well as [Music] um you know as a person who definitely considers um the decisions and the day-to-day policies enacted by the board as an important influence on what my daughter gets as a member of the community but also what the community gets generally uh the the community of the school the kids in particular as well as the teachers and the staff um and so I think my bent towards public service is definitely a strong suit in that situation I'm also a volunteer for meels on Wheels in hunon County um and I do other things that affect the community in a positive way that I think can be reflected on the board as wellon thank for coming out again appreciate your time nice to see you ni to see you how does the Schoolboard balance need to provide a quality education to the students with the need to respond to the local taxpayer burden oh I don't have the time tonight to answer that one that's pretty much the golden question um I think there is a balance there for sure and I think people see that balance as different you know where they see the the um the balance as coming to equal is very different depending on who they are um so I I don't think that's an easy I feel I can't quite provide you with the direct answer except that when it comes down to it and you're dealing with a decision that's big that's going to affect the taxpayers interests as well as the particular kid who might be going to the school you you know as a as a inherent person you have to listen and wait to both of those but I do think that different people see that pretty differently if that's sort of a roundabout way of answering it but I'm also trying to be direct and that I don't think there's an easy answer to that one thank you hello what do you see as the major issue or issues facing our um well I think there are a couple there's obviously you know I'm just aware of generally the influx of the preschool money and and you know the benefit that that would obviously provide the community but the challenges that the school board presumably and the school have to struggle with to accommodate that um I'm a big believer in preschool education and I know that it really sets kids up for success in the communities so um I also think that um you know the transition to the new schools is going to be a significant thing that is going to happen within the community so and I think the final thing sort of tied in with that really is that I know is happening just as a parent and standing on the outside it's really not just Aion but sort of like the movement of the teachers and the the changes the teachers have been facing and how to balance those things against the need for the teachers to make the changes or how quickly to make them Chang so I think that that is an issue that I've heard about a little bit on my own as it's kind of seen um whether it be from you know students or seeing the attrition or whatever it may be so I think that's an issue that's facing the board or or will be Y how would you as a board member work with the superintendent and other board members when there are different opinions on different yeah I mean I I think I would I'm a very direct person I don't know that I can't just say well I'm a lawyer so I can do it I think it's a little bit more than that so I would say my communication style is very direct I don't hide the ball I'm not I don't really kind of um speaking one out of one side of my mouth and then try to please someone else on the other side I'm pretty direct about what my position is on things or where I stand but I'm also a pretty good listener in terms of opposing points of view and I think that's something we're suffering from right now in society generally um but I do think that I'm capable of it and I and I have that to offer to the community both of Lambertville um particularly because I would be a representative of Lambertville but generally um so I would handle conflicts directly and non- aggressively I think I'm I'm able to balance direct with but also hearing people's perspectives um and and taking them into consideration and into you know into my final determination if that's fair or vote if appointed you'll serve in this position until our 2026 reorganization meeting which typically takes place at the first week in January would you consider or are you considering running in the November 2025 election to extend your term I would consider it yes I am not making a determination right now um and I can't say either way but I would say I'm definitely considering it not interest mine having interviewed at a previous um okay so the board has several committees that me once a month they include Personnel curriculum policy Finance or facilities and school and communities which committee do you think would be the best fit for you and what um I think policy would definitely be a good fit for me um I think my background in child welfare as well as understanding sort of the effects of [Music] um you know the everyday functioning of the school and the policies that underwrite it are an example of why I would be good at that um or why I would be interested in it and good at it um I think the other two um are a little bit less exciting but perhaps my skills will be well used in and thus I'm being a public servant I would say negotiations probably um that I know is on the board in terms of um just my my background and my skills as well as um probably Personnel um partially because my interest is noted earlier y that uh that does it for are prepared question but I'll so I'll ask you uh one final question and is the classic interview question what is it that we have not asked you that you would like to tell us Oh I thought you were GNA tell me what's my what did I used to say to people what's your area of growth I don't that's a um I I think you've asked all the questions I think many of you know who I am in the community just because of being the community um and I don't think that i' we've left a stone on turn tonight in terms of who I am generally as a person so I'm comfortable where we stand very thanks again for coming out yes thanks so with that and uh in the meantime the board is going to uh go into an executive session now and discuss um that executive session will hopefully be less than now hopefully L hopefully much less than that we don't know we will see we see how it goes but um we will be coming back we will be conducting our regular business uh once that ends so with that I will ask the board for a motion to go into executive session so move for thank you and Kevin with a second thank you all in favor anyone oppos so we're just going to step down the hall feel free to that you don't get a break now feel free to check out the school store if you want to while we on break right out to the right in the hle [Music] oh yeah some oh go spe Li that's for [Music] [Music] she that's [Music] Tom [Music] for for we so [Music] I [Music] like yeah [Music] for for [Music] to [Music] that for spe for [Music] hour spe me remember spe [Music] [Music] spe spe [Music] spe don't [Music] they for [Music] on CH [Music] that's only for [Music] you okay [Music] [Music] B for [Music] [Music] you [Music] for for up I'm all right uh we need a motion to uh come out of the executive session at 7:30 p.m. move by Ronnie second by second by Kevin thank you all in favor I I I anyone oppos okay uh we have had a chance to uh deliberate on our candidates so with that I will open nominations for the uh um the vacant board seat from Lambertville do I have a nomination I nominate Aaron o okay very good uh are there any other nominations with that uh I will uh we will close the nominations and um we will have a roll call vote markers yes sh yes Kev keski yes R to Mar yes yes okay um with that uh congratulations Aaron um you'll uh be able to join the board next month meeting um Anna thank you so much for being here we appreciate it um in fact I'd like to take a five minute recess right now and um just going to have an opportunity for everybody to get up stretch their legs then we'll get back to our regular business Okay so We Will We Will begin at 7:36 yeah looking at them it feels yeah feels but yeah for [Music] that seems impossible impossible okay Michael welcome thank you for joining us to goair I gave hard time stay doing something different SCH do I have like a do I have a time take your time it's not that all right we're going to be back in session now um and so we will begin uh with our um um we will begin with our report of the student representative of the board Luke Graver welcome it's the first meeting Luke will be a part of believe senior this year so uh what do you have but before you go I'm gonna do a little introduction please Sor didn't that's okay so we are pleased to welcome our newly appointed student representative South 100 Board of Education Lucas graier Lucas is currently a senior who has participated in our marching band since seventh grade where he plays the flute he's also a member of our Boeing team concert band and all of our and all of our school musicals his first lead in our musical was during his eighth grade year in Fame and last year he was the lead as odalo in The Drowsy chaper room Lucas is actively involved in many of our clubs there's a long list okay Lucas is a member of the art Club the drama club the environmental Club gaming GSA Key Club Jan Club literary magazine yearbook connect Club Latin Student Union peer leadership Spanish Honor Society and National Honor Society pretty major in his time outside of school Lucas likes to play pickle ball Lucas will be applying early decision to the University of Pennsylvania where he plans the major in art history and architecture we're excited to have you as our student rep this year welcome to the board thank you hello my name is Lucas Graber um so for the student representative uh my first uh subject is on course um so new this year all students and staff have transitioned to on course so it has changed from our previous online classroom Google Classroom um and the student bodies adapting to the S platform well we have very good positive feedback um to our Sports so our football team um won their most recent game this Friday um I believe 40 to 14 setting their win loss ratio to 2 to one uh freshman Kellen Healey scored two goals or two touchdowns sorry um Junior Dayton rowski um had five carries for 71 yards and Senior Ed Cooper had three touchdowns and 18 carries for 134 yards our boys varsity soccer showed Relentless effort and remarkable um persistence through their game against boundbrook on Saturday Junior Connor Keys has 69 saves in the last six games um girl soccer's next game is Tuesday or is tomorrow Tuesday the 24th against scale St Bernards um led by their leading scor Olivia J across country um has a meet tomorrow at soulbury school um against Pennington and sberry um they also have a 65es wild safari race on Saturday the 28th um and their junior captain or their Captain who's a junior Lucy Reed has won the petty International and War integr last in their last warant tech match against six others um our field hockey team has a win loss of three to three um have Addison po cord Junior has a third has had 133 points um which is their lead score for the pton polar Court her sister has had six um has had 12 saves in two games for the marching band um they have received F second place in the onea division at their last henal competition led by myself and Senior Liam CRA the cheer team continues to uplift school spirit and motivate the blue cre to participate in all their cheers and fun activities um the team has had a several an immense increase in numbers which may be the largest tier team we've had in over 10 years um cheer is led by captains KY Cali Keller Tess Kathy Jordan aiah mcneel aouri Scott and storman McCain um next is our Fairview trip so our camp Fairview trip is this week we leave um South Juniors and seniors me included um we are leaving Wednesday and coming back the following day which is Thursday um we will help organize and Lead instructional activities for fifth and sixth fers attended um clubs most clubs have started by now and are in session uh the most notable Club this month has been the LSU or the L Student Union uh who are celebrating Hispanic heritage marks um students have been on the morning announcements to inform the student body on important influential latinx figures uh they also have placed QR codes around the building where students can scan them and by scanning uh it will take you to a virtual presentation on historic landmarks such as the Galapagos Islands and mahaka um also the lp mag the lit literary magazine club has um well is looking for more submissions and members to join so our new school store has had the grand opening this year uh which took place on Tuesday so September 20 September 17th sorry the Eagles Perch is a student Red Run store which sells quick and easy to go snacks um it is operated during our Flex hours and it's in partnership with the connect Club back to school night um we've had a successful back to school night again where many student volunteers have helped parents find their way around the school um for senior activities last Wednesday the senior class has had a meeting um for each member to paint their name on The Rock outside located in the eil courtyard they have written their names and the class of 2025 also the senior Sunrise is this sat is this Friday I'm sorry September 27th at 6:15 a.m. um if you were if for seniors please email Miss s to um for additional information and lastly our homecoming event so our homecoming football games on the 25th of October so this is next month it's a little foreshadow um and the dance will take place on Saturday the following day the 26th of October thank you thank you we go any questions so you mentioned football game band short thank you have time as they always do nice to see Mr Stevens back this year so um any other questions for our student representativ board you remember going to Camp fa you as the sixth grader yourself um yes I do and also for marching ban when I seventh grade the attended oh very good very good okay um next up we have our PTO and our laf update the part from the p um so our elections actually ended this afternoon well shortly before I came here so I haven't even been able to congratulate anybody yet but I can announce them now um we did have to change the structure a bit just because it's it's a transitional year and it just finding six people and figuring out the roles that were going to be playing in the middle school high school we thought it was better to just have three for this year um we amended the bylaws to allow us to do that and then next year we can kind of have another conversation of what we think is a good idea but in um the elementary school it'll be vice president Marcela Roso recording secretary Trista lucazz and corresponding secretary Jen bolanowski um and then for the middle school high school level um it'll be vice president Lesley darling recording secretary Laura Brewer and um corresponding secretary Quinn Hoff um these I worked well with all of these people so I'm really excited to see what they bring um Lee and I have been doing a great deal on our own and I'm we're really looking forward to working with everybody and moving forward and growing even better and stronger so um so congratulations to them um many community members have been in touch with us with ideas suggestions um we really appreciate it so so keep it coming but one of them was um a parent had screenshot something from North hunon and they do a parent teacher student organization um I brought it up to Tony last week so he he said great and I think that will help bridge the gap and kind of give people an idea of what our purpose is at the high school level I I think it's especially important up here um speaking to students what they want what they see our role as and I mean the common theme at back to school was like a lot of people were like oh another committee or another organization so I I do want to I want to get the word out of what we can do what we can support and and all of that and I like our organization um we try I guess we fill the gaps where the district and the laf can't fill because it doesn't fall within their within their um organizations but um so our we had our first kids night out and we nearly hit our cap we Capp the event at 60 just because we try to keep it safe for everybody um we had 57 kids so I do anticipate these events selling out so parents if you are interested in it I I do recommend signing up early just because to keep like I said keep it safe we try to have like a 10 to one ratio especially with the amount of prek kits that we're having in these events so the next one is Friday October 11th um and we will have Miss Ryan thank God she she's like a godsend to us um we did change the time uh typically or sorry when I started these events we it was geared towards the the higher grades so we had a lot of fourth fifth and sixth graders now are the majority of our kids are prek through third grade which makes the dynamic a little interesting especially like the closer we get to 9 o' it's like meltdown city so we did we did change the time to 6:30 to 8:30 because we've had to get creative like here's my phone you want to watch CoCo melon or you know what I mean like we' just we do our best but we we talk and we do think 6:30 to 8:30 is better um and we did offer a staggered pickup time for parents um because that 8:30 is still late for some of the kids so um we're trying to accommodate people as best we can but it was really successful we pulled in after um expenses like $850 for it's not bad for two and a half hours of chaos so but we make do and the kids the kids have fun and I mean it once you explain the rules and like they just it's a it's a fun time for everybody but um next is Scholastic Book Fair so we're going to have the Scholastic Book Fair at this the same week in both buildings at um the elementary school and middle school on location so that's October 14th through 18th in both locations and the um elementary school will be prek through fourth cases and then the middle school on location will be prek cases and a Middle School Book Fair um so that's nice Scholastic's been working with us and trying to be accommodating to fit the new Dynamic of the buildings um we did form a committee um communication on that did go out with like a long list of other Communications on parents square and from the PTO but if you'd like to join the book fair since it is a heavier lift with both fairs being at the same time in two different locations um you can email um srsd PTO gmail.com and we can put you in touch um Lee will be running the elementary one and Laura Brewer will be running which I'm so excited we'll be running the middle school one for those of you who don't know she took a week off of work every year for the book fair so it's like she's like the book fair Queen her and Jen Cyra so we're very excited to have her back and then we have trunk Retreat um it's Friday October 18th from 6:30 to 8 um at the middle school on location um sign up is on membership toolkit for trunk spaces and Walkers we did lower the price this year um we kind of talked to community members to see like what the best price point was so the decision was made to lower the price for Walkers and higher the price for um trunk spaces so we hope that that works for us and we're hoping to get a lot of candy donations so we can kind of alleviate the financial stress on famili so they can just come and have fun and not worry about it but we are looking for trunks so um we don't discriminate Aunts Uncles grandparents High School parents who miss the hustle and bustle of Halloween so we really desperately need Trunks and there will also be a 15minute sensory friendly portion um there will be no flashing lights no loud sounds nothing scary um we did have a lot of students take advantage of last year so um it's it is important to continue that and we do have other exciting things like potentially a 4 petting zoo if we can figure it out so that will be fun um and lastly I do so at our meeting a couple weeks ago um someone had asked why do we fundraise so much why do we do so many of these events and the short answer is so we don't have to say no I don't like when someone a staff member or a parent or somebody comes to us like we don't want to say no so it is important for us to be well-funded it is important for us to do fundraising and fundraising events um and we're here to support the gaps so um things that we have done historically the PTO at w samel had done the $50 gift cards that we had given to every staff member to redeem throughout the year so that is something that's important that I would like to get back to but again that comes with being very well funded and we're just not there yet but we do field day teacher appreciation assembly um randomly will pop in with popsicles at recess to just bring up morale and get the kids excited um pizza and Kona on the last day of school and teacher appreciation we don't know if I said that yet but um it's just stuff like that to for the school Community um I did also get a question of do I have to volunteer if I join the PTO and the answer is nope you don't have to volunteer we would love people to volunteer but um the dues really helps support our operating costs our operating costs are quite costly um membership toolkits very expensive all of our insurance because now that we're at three different buildings I have to carry an insurance policy for the entire District so it's it's really expensive it's like $2,500 a year so membership dues cover that so it is important so if you can't volunteer it your monetary contribution is and then just want to say we had a wonderful turnout at our first meeting I there were like over 30 people there which I've never seen that many people at a PTO meeting before um so I hope that people start keep coming out our next meeting is October 7th at 7M at the elementary school in the media center um and if you can't make that meeting we do send out the slide deck we do post the minutes and send the minutes out to members and we are working on as link so sorry for being so L thank you thank you thank you appreciate what you do um do we have an laf how you doing uh Tomy laf Treasurer uh just a reminder for anybody that doesn't know golf day is Monday so uh we've receiv received great support from the community uh from people sponsorships uh people come out to play but we still have room at both events so we've got a family day on Sunday at her Glen it starts at 3 o'clock plenty of room there and we obviously start Monday morning 9:00 am uh tea time so they get there early for breakfast um and there will be the putting contest we're going to do before we see off so putter get uh it's been mentioned a few times obviously we help supported the Eagles per you just got to look at it looks great great um and then last week we started uh at the end of last week and early this week we've been meeting with teachers in the high school middle school to kind of reintroduce ourselves um about the foundation our mission and to go over the grant process so we can get more more more people involved thank you thanks okay um correspondents uh we have uh any correspondents we have is on the uh website with the agenda so uh with that I believe that takes us to approval of minutes from our August meeting um could I get a motion to approve the regular minutes from the August regular regular minutes and I guess from the August meeting by Ronnie please by Kevin thank you any discussion on the minutes all in favor all right anyone opposed okay with that that takes us to our superintendent reports thank you so just a few things I want to touch upon but one thing I just want to start out with is just a reminder if you have not downloaded the parentsquare app please do so our percentages continue to increase I know this was a big theme back to school night um one big piece of this is that we will be using parents Square this year here for elementary parent conferences to sign up so information will be going out about that later in the month of October but if you hadn't had a chance please do download the app and then you'll have it on your phone and everything will be in one place for you for parents where I also want to just remind the community that tomorrow night we start our community sessions About Preschool so we have three meetings scheduled that will all be via Zoom um tomorrow night then October 8th at 7 pm and then October 21st at 9:00 a.m. so for any folks that maybe the evening doesn't work well we're going to do a morning one as well and the goal of that uh Zoom will be I'll be be providing an overview of some different options that the board has examined as far as preschool facility options and then really from that looking to get any feedback or answer any questions or ideas that folks may have we're going to record all the zoom sessions and then the board will have the opportunity to review all that information probably sometime at the end of October and then uh kind of move forward as far as taking that input for their decision making so again uh if you can make one of the meetings great um you know if not I'll be sending them out posting them on our website so you can watch it on your own free time to review the information so I do want to take an opportunity to share a little bit about um our climate survey results so if you remember last year was the second year where in the month of June we put out a climate survey to parents staff and students uh and obviously this feedback is extremely important we got a lot of responses a lot of information even much more than we did the first year that we did this so what I want to do is just kind of provide you know areas that we want to celebrate and then areas of focus moving forward and the school and Community Committee took you know an extensive look at all this information and kind of vetted it out um and what I did was break it down kind of by parents students and staff so you can kind of see what it looks like so if you look at our parents first just some areas to celebrate um teacher availability to meet with parents and respon to parents' needs uh obviously because of the size of our district knowing all of our students and the small class sizes that we possess um you know P point four was really important that parents felt that really at all three levels that there's an adult in each building that my child can go to and Trust in the event that there was an issue with a problem they needed help that's one of the most important things out there for us as a district the amount of extracurricular opportunities for a small District the diversity among our student population the fact that our teachers are committed to helping our students District communication overall improved at all three levels all you know elementary middle and high school um teacher availability for extra help and then parents feeling that their child is safe in our schools for areas of focus student achievement and our test scores continue to be at the top of the list um communication at the school level so you know District level was something that we can celebrate and then communication hopefully at the at the building level would improve and we'll talk a little bit about some ideas that we have for that overall kind of student behavior and discipline was a common theme across that you'll see um at my child school students are respectful of differences uh in reference to cultural or personal or socioeconomic and religious so that's an area of focus homework came out really elementary middle and high school of just a lot of questions about homework so that is something that we'll be taking a look at um more communication about my child's academic and behavioral progress on a regular basis so many parents shared that obviously we have report cards um but that's only one time you know a marking period obviously we have open grade books at you know 5 through 12 but again that's kind of after the fact they really would like to have more ongoing communication and be able to see what students are doing day-to- day in their classroom so we'll talk a little bit about that student recognition for academic achievements academic rigor so our students being challenged academically bullying prevention programming so that's something that we did do a lot with last year and I think that we have to um you know do a little bit more on promoting that with our school community so parents are more aware of the type of programming that we have increase in the number of course offerings and then student engagement from our students just some common themes my teachers care about me my teachers expect me to do my best work if I have a problem there's an adult in the school that I can talk to and my school tries to get students to join after school activities and then areas of focus feeling like connectedness to their school um student discipline and conduct and behavior so again that was a theme that came out from parents as well student engagement at my school students think being different is okay so that's kind of an area Focus something that we're going to be looking at and my school is neat and clean that came more from our high school so that's kind of an area that we've already addressed with our facility staff and then from staff areas to celebrate staff feels safe at school our staff regularly share and discuss teaching methods with colleagues staff cultural differences are respected so among our staff um and overall there's a feeling of commitment on improving student achievement and then areas of focus more staff input on decisionmaking student behavior and student attendance so you can see that behavior theme is kind of across the board from students parents and staff making sure staff felds included in the district plan for the future continue seeking ways to praise and recognize our staff and then support from parents in the community um you know the reality is in this day and age it's not easy to be a teacher right um so you know obviously you know our teachers come to school each and every day and you know sometimes they carry that burden where you know it is it can be difficult you know based on what's going on in our society so just like next steps and areas that kind of hit on some of that we've discussed and some of this you'll see represented in our district goals which I'm going to go through next student achievements so um I'll just remind you that at our next board meeting um Daniel Lennon our director of curriculum instruction and assessment will be doing our annual Stu student achievement report and I will tell you now that we definitely saw gains and we're moving in a positive direction which we're very excited about compared to last year scores and you'll see that next month um but beyond that we thought it was really important and we talked about this at the curriculum committee that we shouldn't just do a one time throughout the school year so we're actually going to be starting do like quarterly presentations where we share the results of all the internal mechanisms that we're using to collect data on our students and measure their progress so our goal is to do that four times a year rather than just once in October so that's something that you'll also see as part of our district goals communication about academic progress so Luke's mentioned before that we're using new platform encourse classroom in grades 5 to 12 so now by logging into encourse parents do have the ability to see dayt day what our students are working on in class so you know what they did today what's coming up tomorrow any long-term assignments in the past we've used Google Classroom it's been challenging because parents have not always had access to that information and they can't see it on a daily basis now there's no surprises you see exactly what your kids see and you could actually even access the assignments and the materials and look at them just to kind of get a better handle on what students are working on dayto day in those classes so student Behavior so you'll see one of our goals um we are going to have a districtwide committee this year focusing on student behavior and expectations and the goal of that committee will be to make recommendations programming wise for the 25 26 school year and kind of looking at a lot of different aspects um when we talk about just student behavior and social emotional learning and what our expectations are students what that looks like in kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade U we've had a lot of conversations about things that we're calling like a profile of an eagle so what is a profile of an eagle in an elementary school compared to a middle school compared to a high school and what is that that we really want to kind of continue to put out in our in front of our students to strive for each and every day and recognize those positive behaviors so those are all the different things that will be accomplished in that within that committee so we'll be sharing more information communication at the building level so we've really been pushing um obviously parent square and our principals and our school secretaries are using parent Square you know more than we've done in the past with our old system which was school messenger and then eventually we'll be rolling this out to our teaching staff in November so even more engagement you know at the building level with our parents so we're hoping that will improve upon some of the information that came out survey horse offerings so you know you've probably heard enough about this hopefully this isn't surprise but you know we launched our dualan Romo program and honestly it was a huge hit at back to school night here I know that Dr lutko Who was here who's kind of heading that up with Miss Lennon had over 30 parents who stopped in throughout the night um so that's awesome that's something that we're really really excited about for our students student engagement just looking at a variety of different activities at all three levels you know for example we heard about Camp Fairview tonight and I know at the 56 you know early on we had an activity where all of our students came together and we brought in an outside organization to really focus on an afternoon of problem solving and collaboration and just bringing kids together you know from the different communities to really kind of work together and to get to know each other better those are different ideas we have some ideas at the high school with flex and different things we're going to do maybe once a month to kind of bring students together and celebrate each other and really bring together that again getting back to that connectedness that we're really looking to have as a sense of community and then obviously that our elementary school school as well so a lot of different ideas that we have um staff input so that's something that's really been a personal goal of mine this year with some of the Committees and focus groups that we're going to have and really having the opportunity to meet with our staff and share their feedback um and obviously Drive our decision making moving forward and then staff recognition so specifically I think last year we did a great job with our news bites if you hopefully looked at those where we feature different teachers wor the elementary school though element schools last year where we did like profiles on different staff members we didn't do as much at the high school which I'd like to change that this year um I think it's a great opportunity for not only our staff to read those but also the community just to get the better know whether it's a teacher a custodian a par professional whoever it is like you know there's some unique skills that folks bring and some really cool opportunities and experiences they bring to each each and every day so that's a way to kind of put folks out there we're hoping and then the fact that as Jess mentioned before about school PTO I think will go a long way with the high school and it already has quite honestly what the PTO has been able to do just in the last four or five weeks it's been incredible compared to what's happened in the past at the high school so that's going to make a huge difference um so that's just kind of an overview of the climate survey I'll put this information on our website tomorrow morning so it's available um I just want to reiterate the message uh you know and school Community can jump in like we put a lot of time and effort the administration will tell you we spend a lot of time on this over the summer so it's not something that we just give for the sake of giving we dig through it quite honestly some of it's not easy to read right but our goal is to grow as professionals and to get better so each one of us including myself spends a lot of time reflecting on the input that we get from all the different constituents that we serve and how can we get better as a district that's the goal of it so um I don't know if is there anything else more that you want to say or like from the committee side of it yeah I think it's Al um as you said it's very important that when people give feedback sometimes they feel like that feedback just goes into the round file nobody's actually paying attention to it and you can see a direct line between some of the feedback that we received on the climate survey to the district goals and to some of the the um action plan items that that you're describing and I think that that's really very meaningful um you don't you don't shy away from negative in input as well as positive input and I think that that's what makes our district stronger So speaking of our district goals I just want to go through these quickly I think it's important to bring back to life and make sure we keep a living document of our strategic plan right it's a process that we spent a lot of time on recently so I don't want to forget about that so you'll notice with each one of our goals I have hide it back where it fits with our strategic plan so first of all goal one you know a lot of convers ations with the board and feedback with our Administration team about really looking at that data where at the data that really shows that what we're doing is working so that is directly tied here for goal one the Strategic plan goal one student experience and you can see I already talked about you know the bottom bolt that's in bold but there's a lot of different things that are happening now we have a new acceleration block that we've implemented in our new Elementry schedule and also in our 56 schedule and it will eventually be in our 58 schedule this is a block of time where there's a lot of different things that are happening for our students and it truly is data driven right so the data is telling us what the students need and what supports do they need or what enrichment do they need on the other side of things so that's up and running um again really looking at you know the academic expectations and the achievement level so again looking at that data the flex Block in 7th and eth has evolved so it's much more again data driven and using specific programming you know to really identify the needs based on our state assessment scores and our Benchmark assessment scores to really provide those interventions for our students during that time um we're using I ready as a diagnostic tool you know K through a which is up and running um various interventions that we'll be utilizing we continue to put an emphasis on small group instruction right all the way across the district you know we really don't want to see whole uh group instruction we want to really see you know teachers breaking down students in the groups and students working with with each other and and the teacher available to help support students and facilitate and again as I mentioned before you know we will share that progress with you throughout the year you know poorly in our board meetings District go 2 this is familiar from last year it's also tied to strategic plan goal one student experience so you know mtss is a big buzzword right now in education a multi-tiered system of support basically what that means is we want to make sure that we set up levels of interventions for students on the data that we have available to us you know a tier one intervention is typically something that happens within the classroom right a tier two intervention can be in the classroom maybe getting pulled for small group instruction within the classroom or could be a pull out a tier three could be a more than likely will be a pull out or it's a more intensive intervention and again you know this data drives us so we can close the gaps for our students and honestly when we go into State assessment season which is in May we kind of know where things are and and predict how students are going to do before we even take the test if we're doing it right throughout the year as far as utilizing data implementation to benchmarks we gave all of our benchmarks in being the year for the first time using en course assessments um the accelerate block which I me mentioned before and we continue at the high school and middle school level to run reports so every other Monday we run a report and we pick up any students that are below 70 and we really start to dig in why that is the case and obviously that can drive drive their Flex schedule moving forward to close that Gap because we want all of our students to be passing and above that 70 level if not Beyond so again rather than waiting the nine weeks we're doing it every two weeks so hopefully we can prevent any issues by the end of the market period goal three is professional learning communities um and this is really where the rubber meets the road as far as data and taking a look at that data and you know as teachers mentioned one of the areas uh you know positive from the survey was having the opportunity to collaborate with their colleagues this is where that happens right where we really take the opportunity and now even more than ever we're in a great spot because now all of our third grade teachers can do that because they're all together all of our second grade teachers kindergarten teachers fifth grade teachers where before we were across two buildings and to bring that together was difficult now that they're all in the same place it's great so um and that will only get better once we open up the middle school so we're really excited about that so goal four goes back to that kind of student piece far as you know behavior um and we will be having a districtwide committee you can see all the different things we're going to focus on in the bullets and uh it will be facilitated by all three of our principles since this will impact us K through 12 um for 2526 and then something that I'm really excited about that we're doing as part of our March in service we're dedicating the day to that District Wellness so we have a district Wellness day for our staff all staff from the beginning of the day to the end and there's going to be a variety of different things Jason Miller has been working on this we have an employee assistance program that's going to be providing free support we've been working with the mayor Health which is our insurance provider and the goal will be have different workshops that staff can attend different physical activities staff can attend all kinds of different things throughout the entire day we're really really excited that that's going to come together for March and then finally goal five which is tied to strategic plan goal four facilities logistic utiliz and transition we still have work to do right we we're halfway there we opened up our new elementary school we implemented our new Elementary schedule now we're getting ready to open up our 58 school we have to finish developing our new 58 schedule we have to finish developing our staffing configuration for our 58 building that's all going to happen we're talking about what extracurricular what co-curricular activities are going to look like the board's talking about facilities what that looks like in reference to field usage um we're also talking about as I mentioned preschool and Universal preschool and facilities and what's going to happen with there so that's all included in goal number five um which will be a lot of work that we'll be working on throughout the year um as a district and as a board and then finally just wrapping it up so hopefully if you looked at social media today you saw some pictures that I posted that that were from this morning we're still on a Target completion date of March 31st 2025 and as you can see things are really starting to come together um where you know Roofing you know and different things and and the addition on the back with the two levels uh we're making some awesome progress our goal from the contractor side of things um is to have this building completely enclosed by the end of November so then everything else as before we hit the cold weather um we'll be working on the inside with all the finish work with a goal still March 31st 2025 so this is a primary focus for us we meet every two weeks on Wednesday with our contractor construction meetings and we are on schedule and we are making excellent progress any questions from the board on Way Board okay um can I ask you to put back the slide with the three dates for I do want to go back this was the beginning of the of the session I do want to go back and mention we will be talking about preschool and and how that is going to how that could possibly work and so Community input um on the preschool program one of those days so I hope that uh people if you're in the audience or anyone who's watching at home will consider participating in at least one of those sessions and letting us know how you feel um I did this evening received an email from our board member Jen Bachelor who is not here tonight uh and she asked me to read a statement and since this is related to uh the preschool I thought this would be an appropriate time to do that um and she writes unfortunately I'm not able to make this statement in person as we set out this week and hosting Community sessions around our preschool facilities planning I want to reinforce how important it is to have Community input in order to fully consider all of the options we have to House Preschool we have had one Community member address the board nearly every month since March on this topic and I want to take the time tonight to reiterate and acknowledge some of her concerns and also encourage those who have questions to please attend the upcoming session than 2022 the Board of Education expanded our elementary school population by accepting preschool expansion aid from the state voters at the time had just passed a referendum that would result in three regional school buildings a prepa to Four elementary school building in lamberville with two dedicated preschool Plass a new 58 Middle School in Stanwell and a newly releas in figured high school for grades high as were communicated to the public the 33 million spent from the referendum promised to bring new programming to the high school 21st Century Learning spaces to solve our facilities issues and would bring regionalization full to Circle it is irrefutable that the West a school building is not part of that vision for the district understandably given the options we are now considering some community members have pointed out this fact we as a board have a duty to fully consider the long-term impact this preschool expansion will have on our facilities and finances the community voted for a plan that promis new programming of the high school instead of new discussing new programs for the high school we are focusing on how to accommodate and support a preschool expansion that is supposed to be no cost to the district maintaining a separate building to account for a shortage of just four classrooms will come at the expense of other things we could be doing in the district this is why we need to carefully consider the amount of time and money we have already spent on facilities the last few years and find a way to support preschool without sacrificing other programs for putting us in a ho financially moving forward we as a board need to make every effort to fully analyze any future program expansions before applying for accepting funds I look forward to having these conversations and working together to find a solution that truly works for the entire community and that is Mrs B for his sa so I would say um that uh I will let her say stand on so we will have plenty there's going to be lots to talk about over the next month um we have had some conversations internally as a Bo about these options we have we have looked at these options Mr souo in his presentation is going to be presenting some of the pros and cons of the various options and what those things might look like and so again I would like to use this opportunity to say the folks in the community please come out let us hear your voice let us know what what the come and come and learn come come ready to listen please and then we want to hear what you have to say um anything else I had a a statement on a different topic I was re realizing that I I should have said this earlier because I kept thinking of it whenever we talk about our district goals and the things that we're implementing they represent a lot of work from the teachers so I wanted to express my gratitude for that um going to back to school night I'm always impressed by who we have here um as as teachers and it's really been a very positive experience onour classroom I know is something that that has been very difficult to live um and where we've asked a lot of our teachers but I can share a personal experience with that that I think is really I hope that everybody um has this type of opportunity we talk about enrichment of the kids at education as if it's you know it's something that sometimes it's outside of the home um but this gives us the tool you said that you know you can go on and you can see the work that the kids are doing I specifically looked at it and saw oh my daughter had a test in biology let me see what she how she did and I actually could see the questions and so at dinner we talked about tectonic plates and you know it was a discussion that I wouldn't have been able to have because if I asked her how to biology quiz go she would have said fine and we would have just moved on so I know that the teachers are working really hard on this and I as a parent appreciate their work because it's helping me to have a tool to support their work so thank you well thought a great went to the elementary schools the same experience here I very any other comments from the board with that let's go to the uh we will open um to the public uh for our first uh public comment session um as always uh we invite you to come up to the podium um make a statement to the board we ask that you try to keep your comments to about three minutes um and uh we will either we may or may not uh answer the any statement or question tonight we may take that back for consideration but we will get back to you with an answer if we don't answer you so with that is there anyone in the audience who would like to come and bring something to hello my name is Andrea little and I'm a resident of West Samwell I would like to address the board with a few points tonight uh first being school choice applications for 2425 the school website references all past dates including due dates in 2023 yet it also references some current information a school choice intended for the 242 year if so I'd ask that the administration evaluates the elementary and Upper Elementary grades with space restrictions our classroom size can continue to be acceptable uh yet we do have some space limitations uh and we'd like to just ensure that um that's being addressed because on the site it shows all grades are available with 21 spaces so I don't know if that's past information or current information if you do intend to to continue with choice I do ask that um resident students needs are being met and with all the attention to be a successful learner I read in tonight's correspondence from a local resident they wrote that they were having some challenges with their special um education that there wasn't enough Staffing so I just want to ensure that our residents are getting the Staffing that they need and that we're able to accommodate students the the number of students within our community um preschool I'm so excited to listen and learn um tomorrow evening appreciate that comment um with a lot of questions in the community it's good to know that school will share the status of the preschool program I encourage the school to consider reformatting which is something I know I've brought up probably since March as everyone has heard tonight um if that was the first time um but I can say that um we did promise with the school renov ations I would hope that we could keep the school's age appropriate and keep bundled schools together um and that to be a consideration and then last but not least West dwell Elementary last month I asked a very simple question about to the school administration and um it began with just asking a question if we've begun thinking about the West danwell School um proceedings to sell um it was met with an answer thank you um but then I was also met with sarcastic comment um and then a lot of Giggles I ask for professionalism and being a good neighbor to allow our community members the courtesy in asking questions thank you very much thank you is there anyone else who has something they'd like to bring you we have one online um X from De Dodson and could the district possibly look into offering army RC for the high school students at South Hunter Regional High School so I did do a little research on this one because I saw it earlier today um and what I found out is like in order to establish a junior RC is there a video um so according to the code it looks like in order to start a program you need 10% of your overall student population to enroll or 100 students whichever less so for us that would be about almost 30 students um so I don't know I mean I don't know if we would have that much interest interest uh but it's something that you know we can kind of talk about it would be worth a survey we do have some there are several kids who you know graduated last year went into the military um we have kids who going into the military every year in fact we had backtack years where we had students at West Point and at Naval Academy and we have two students who are currently in both of them have now graduated and we have two students you are in the US Merchant Marine Academy which is also one of the five service academies we have in this country so it's worth it's worth the asking question be there's 30 kids interested okay H Final Call on public comment there will be another public comment period later in the meeting but no one has anything they'd like bring before the board right now that we will close this period of public comments and we will move into our committee reports and then we will start with the building andk have a great night um buildings and grounds um [Music] I um so we discussed Mr sou reviewed what he did tonight with the school construction update we also reviewed some of the remaining items for the South Elementary School crunch list still new items that need to be wrapped up um I presented some information regarding putting solar pounds on three of the district buildings um I've had a meeting with Bond attorney and discussed their recommended engineer and the next step were discussed with the board more to come in the October Finance meeting regarding that Mr talked about Athletic Field expansion and some options there um with more information to come again in the October meeting and then we also just discussed the upcoming prek expansion meetings that we that we discussed in um those list was poed Financial reports were up general fund transfers were discussed contracts that are up for approval tonight the fair L Fair Lake contract for the students that are traveling there this week um there's an out of District replacement contracts the transportation contract and then there is one change for the restaurant supply for the middle school for the kitchen there was additional electrical work that was needed and so that is need as well uh travel and item auction were posted the you'll see from Mr Alan the exception for purchase of goods that you sold last month there was also joint transportation agreements between us and four other school districts some of them will be pay the district TR for our students some where they pay up to tr for students memorandum of understanding for the ESC to use SP at the elementary school a resolution to transfer fundes to cover the instruction bills acceptance from the LF for grant for the elementary school for NE negro wingstar instruments in the amount of $6800 uh an annual approval for the nursing plan that's attach the agenda and then again the school construction payment authorizations we also discussed about a meeting with bus company about electric buses we discussed before that we awarded the clean School Bus energy Grant um we are not going to pursue that at this time we're going to wait a little bit long to see what other options present itself but we also discussed that we did have a bus recently go out of commission that wasn't expected so which Ching plan purchasing event this year to purchasing a new diesel bus um to continue to support our there was no cafeteria updates um and there was a delay in the bus 25 camera installation um due to the vendor availability with new Target next we thank you for that comprehensive can I have a motion to approve items a through like second second by Mark thank you very much any discussion a I would just note the one the one item that's not on item a through o the bus grant that we are not accepting I think it's interesting to note um that would have not pursu not pursuing yes um we're just uh it was uh for they it was a $800,000 that uh T the purchase of four electric buses but the four electric buses would have cost approximately $450,000 a piece to equip them and the range on those buses is only 90 miles and we have a district where we our buses go out pick up students drop them off go out pick up more students and drop them off the next school so those two factors we would be investing $250,000 in these bues that wasn't covered by the Grant and the fact that it does not seem to two to our our district are the reasons why we're not doing that so it's not that we don't believe in Green Solutions but that was not a green solution that works for our district any other discussion on items I appr if not let's vote marn Yes Kev yes M yes yes yes uh Personnel I'll take that right so we just you know went through our Personnel agenda we reviewed our current openings um you will notice just two individuals I want to mention whove played a strong role in our district over the last two years are instructional coaches um have both received administrative jobs so one will be moving to a district over in Pennsylvania as an administrator and the other one will be moving to a district in hun County as an administrator so they've done an awesome job for us the last two years obviously we prepared them well because they both were successful in getting administrative jobs so we're evaluating those two positions and looking at next steps as far as you know how will fill their position um we also have an opening as was mentioned before a special education need right now at middle school and location so we're hoping to fill that within the next couple weeks um and then we also have a stem opening at our elementary school um unfortunately the teacher that we had hired um had to resign unexpectedly so uh we are looking to fill that as well then we spent some time talking about substitute nurses and specifically evaluating our um daily pay rate compared to other districts so my office actually did some comparisons and what we found is that we were below some of the other area districts we are currently our rate of pay was 175 per day for a nurse most of the other districts around us were 200 so we are asking the board to bump that up to 200 tonight and approve that as a new predm rate for the school year and then we also have on our agenda um job descriptions for head day and head night custodian as well as a few minor changes that we made to Our Sick Bank agreement that we had with um our southon Regional Education Association which okay with that um could I have any motion to approve items a just a move by Michael second by second second by Kevin thank you any discussion on on the Motions I will just note that Shannon Gallagher and I are not related there's a lot of gagers out there Comm common as tow crap overnight so sorry true especially if you go to the D about every third person um any other discussion um I will I will just make one one note uh we are hiring rehiring tonight our baseball coach from last season Ben Don Ben uh was a coach here last year did a fantastic job very committed guy um my son had a good coach and really enjoyed him uh he is a teacher at Ridge High School which is in basting Bridge so it is an all good a good hour away he is the director of their program for autistic kids there and his schedule changed and he didn't think he would be able to do the coaching which is why he stepped down but he called me he had after a month of the school year was very excited to say he thought he would like to come back and he reapplied for the open job and so there was interviews I know that multiple candidates appli but uh Mr Miller is the one who makes that decision and Mr suo and uh so I am excited that he is coming back he is a quality person who must um any other comments that's starting with Kevin keski yes Michel stra yes M Bennis yes yes yeah curriculum and Technology I could do that um so we F Vince first started out a lot of Technology especially over the summer to get everything up and running at our new school building um a brand new network and firewall within the entire District um all of our security system now have been running obviously to our new elementary school so a lot of that took a lot of time and effort and a big thanks to all of our Tech folks parent square and updating parent square and releasing that to all of our parents which is now up and running um we have a new website that's tied to that um and obviously you know all the work that we did with en course me year so it's a very busy time for our technology department we also talked about some changes to our program and studies um and then we spent some time too really talking about you know library and media center and what that's going to look like uh when we open up the 58 building and obviously it will look different than it does at Elementary School uh so we'll be sharing more information about that with parents as we get closer when we release our new schedule for the 5A building and kind of what the media center will look like at the at the middle school level um and then we just did a preliminary look as I mentioned before we did just receiv received our njsla um State assessment scores so Jay Allen just did a preliminary review so we can kind of see where we were in each grade level and then we'll be giving a formal presentation to the public and the board at our October board meeting nothing to move there's nothing to move for the curriculum committee I would note that parents will be getting their individual students njsla results in the mail some those are supposed to be mailed by the end of the month so you parents will be receiving those late September or early October and you will have those before the district does its presentation on the aggregate streets sort of now trending um so with that let's go to the policy thanks chff so the policy committee did not meet last month so there's nothing to bring forward on a first read we have four items forit read three policies one regulation the first policy is 5530 on student suicide prevention we did have a robust dialogue over the month on some changes to that one of our board members Ronnie reviewed it very carefully and raised a question about clarifying whether or not there were any staff that have contact asum as that would not be trained we did discuss that briefly last month and it is the practice of the district to provide training to all staff on an annual basis with suicide prevention Suicide Prevention new teachers in fact receive that as part of their onboarding process so they don't ever go for a year without having appropriate training however to make sure that that is abundantly clear that the district's practice we have added language to the policy that all staff who have regular and direct contact with students including but not limited toach staff uh and other folks who are required under the relevant code section will receive that training in line with that we were also reviewing the duty to warn and who has the duty to warrn as it stands the policy places the duty to Warren where uh that a that to warrn where a student has communicated clearly identifiable threat of serious physical harm against themselves to individuals who are required to be trained one wanting to make sure however that that that that action that warning is encouraged by all staff members we are added language to the policy that even staff members who are not required to complete suicide prevention training program are urged to warn and protect when the appropriate circumstances arise so that has been added and thirdly a suggested change and this is actually not before us tonight but we will be talking about it at the next meeting a corresponding change to the regulation regulations could be 50 having to do with notification that upon receiving recommendations from the emergency unit the principal or J will immediately what it said was initially that they had to meet with the parents we're going to change that to contact and we'll talk about that in a bit more detail next on wanted to recognize if we had holistically reviewed the policy and the regulation even though we weren't the regulation was not immediately in front of us the second policy that we're moving forward is the emerg I'm sorry I should stop there any questions related to those changes the second policy that we're moving is 8420 that is the emergency and crisis situations that really was um it's a mandated change it focuses on our special needs population and ensuring they have meaningful and appropriate participation in Fire and safety drills for example ear early notification at the elementary school level and the second Pol or the third policy and regulation are firearm related firearms and weapons these are mandated changes and even though there're a significant Rite they're really a rewrite to make sure that these sections are in coordination with changes that have been made to statutes and administrative codes uh from the um from the the state from the state statutes so there's a slight change in the title of that from weapons to weapons and Firearms but otherwise noal changes all right good so with that we'll need a Marin to uh approve those four three policies and the regulation on the second reading second any discussion on the policy a clear explanation of all of them there is no questions or discussion we'll see yes yeski yes yes yeah uh SCH commun okay um so a lot of the things that we discuss in school school and Community naturally go to the superintendent update so um as Tony uh said earlier the climate survey report was something that we reviewed and we talked about how those tie directly to the district goals um as we address any areas of concern that were reported we also reviewed a report from encourse regard regarding students leaving the district um and said that because this had um a lot of information and the the report that we were looking at also included families that had moved out of the district that we wanted to look at that again with a little bit more of the categorization and um so we'll be looking at that again in the future um we talked about the community input sessions regarding the prek program and um exploring uh potential focus group with Spanish speaking families to cover this and any other relevant topics and we talked about the fifth and sixth grade middle schoolers and how there's a change in because of the change in the transition periods that some of the the ceremonies that those kids normally would have experienced at at things like graduation may not happen so what are some things that we can do to have meaningful um celebrations for th those kids as we're in this unique year transition and that was it not me any questions double fa um any questions or discussion on the school Community report okay um so under routine information items I don't believe you have a h report to move this evening Dr we haven't too early in the school to done any fire drills and um there is a enrollment U document that contains our enrollment which is saved on the website the Doc board meeting that brings us to the second period of public comment uh once again um we open the floor if you have something you'd like to bring before the board um please come up and uh be that anyone have something they like to bring for the board with do we have anyone online okay with that I will then uh close the period of public comment and um there is no need to go into an executive session this evening so we've already done that once tonight so I will look for a motion to adjourn a meeting 8:44 PM by Ronnie thank you second seconds like Kevin thank you all in favor I any opposed okay